Instruments · Sundial

Sundial, stone, from the village of Ryhope, Sunderland, North England, ca. 1700

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.

Maker / attribution: Unrecorded in source
Date: ca. 1700
Historical period: Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Country of origin: England
Place: England
Object type: Sundial
Materials / technique: Stone
Dimensions: Height: 88.5 cm (brick pedestal); Height: 32.5 cm (sundial)
Holding institution: Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Accession / object no.: A.42-1910
Catalogue title (original): Sundial

Record summary

Held and catalogued by Victoria and Albert Museum, London (object number A.42-1910), this is a sundial, made in England, dated ca. 1700. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Instruments collection. Materials and techniques recorded by the source: Stone. Recorded dimensions: Height: 88.5 cm (brick pedestal); Height: 32.5 cm (sundial). The record is illustrated with 1 photograph.

Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.

Catalogue description

V&A — Summary

Said originally to have come from the village of Ryhope, near Sunderland in the north of England. This sundial has thirteen facets with metal gnomons and sits on a baluster-shaped pedestal. On acquisition it was claimed that this type of sundial was very common in Scotland, and only found in England in the northern counties. A suggestion was made (not in the event taken up) that this dial be placed in the quadrangle of the Museum to be 'appreciated by those who have to design gardens in the old style'. In 1910, when this dial arrived at the V&A, designing gardens in the style that was current around 1700 (the approximate date of this dial) was the height of fashion.

V&A — Physical description

The sundial has 13 facets with metal gnomons and sits on a baluster shaped pedestal. Three of the gnomons are missing and one is loose.

V&A — Historical context

On acquisition this type of sundial was said to be very common in Scotland, and only found in England in the northern countries.

V&A — Object history

The sundial is said to have come from the village of Ryhope near Sunderland. Purchased from Mr H.J. Reynolds, for £17 10s in 1910 in London.

Historical context

Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)

Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.

Pocket sundials, Butterfield dials and sandglasses remained essential companions to imperfect clocks; navigators used sandglasses and the log line; observatories began to combine telescopes with pendulum clocks.

Read the period in the timeline More instruments from this period Earlier: Renaissance Horology

Atlas type guide

Sundials and solar time-finders

A sundial tells time from the position of a shadow cast by a gnomon or style. Because the sun's apparent motion depends on latitude, every fixed dial is laid out for a particular latitude, and portable dials either carry a latitude scale or are made for one region. Sundials show local apparent solar time, which drifts against mean (clock) time by up to about sixteen minutes over the year — the equation of time.

Portable dials were the pocket instruments of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Nuremberg and Augsburg workshops produced folding ivory diptych dials with inset compasses; English and French makers sold brass horizontal dials, ring dials and the Butterfield type; Japanese and Chinese makers had their own traditions of compass dials. After mechanical watches became reliable, dials remained in use for setting them, and nineteenth-century heliochronometers were built to correct directly for the equation of time.

What to look for

The latitude engraved on the dial plate or a latitude arc on the gnomon — it shows where the dial was meant to be used.
The type of hour lines: equal (equinoctial) hours, Italian or Babylonian hours counted from sunset or sunrise, or unequal temporal hours on early and Islamic instruments.
An inset magnetic compass and whether a magnetic-declination mark is drawn on its card — a useful dating clue because declination changes over time.
Maker's signatures and town marks: Nuremberg compass-makers (Kompassmacher) often struck a personal mark and the town's punch.
Additional scales such as lunar volvelles, wind roses, perpetual calendars or lists of cities with their latitudes.

Dating clues

Ivory diptych dials are characteristic of Nuremberg between about 1500 and 1700.
Butterfield-type dials with a bird-shaped adjustable gnomon point to Paris workshops from the late seventeenth century onward.
Equation-of-time tables engraved on the plate became common after the mid-seventeenth century, once pendulum clocks made the difference between solar and mean time obvious.

General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.

Mechanisms mentioned

No escapement or complication is named in the source record. See the encyclopedia for how such pieces work.

Record completeness

Maker or attributionNot in source
DateRecorded
Place or countryRecorded
MaterialsRecorded
DimensionsRecorded
Narrative descriptionRecorded
Inscriptions / marksNot in source
ProvenanceNot in source
Several photographsNot in source

Editorial status: Documented — facts as published by the source; not independently verified by Atlas editors.

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Sources & image rights

Record source: Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Image rights: © Victoria and Albert Museum (non-commercial terms) — permission review.

Images are hosted by the Atlas for study and credited to their owner. Rights holders may request correction, credit changes or removal via the editorial office.

Cite this record

"Sundial, stone, from the village of Ryhope, Sunderland, North England, ca. 1700." Victoria and Albert Museum, London, A.42-1910. Catalogue record in The Horology Atlas, WatchMuseum.org, https://atlas.watchmuseum.org/museum/sundial-stone-from-the-village-of-ryhope-sunderland-north-englan-f8726d.